LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform. With more than 1 billion members worldwide, LinkedIn is a powerful platform for B2B marketing and lead generation. LinkedIn’s user base primarily consists of professionals, making it ideal for reaching decision-makers and influencers. By leveraging its features and following best practices, you can effectively reach your target audience. LinkedIn’s advertising platform allows you to target specific demographics, job titles, company size, and industry:

• LinkedIn users are typically decision-makers and professionals.
• Approximately 80 percent of B2B leads come from LinkedIn. 
• Effective Lead Generation: 89 percent of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for lead generation.
• Strong Content Marketing Platform: 97 percent of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing.
• High-Quality Leads: LinkedIn drives high-quality leads for B2B marketers.
• Effective Advertising Platform: LinkedIn ads can reach over 14 percent of the global population.
• High Conversion Rates: LinkedIn ads have twice the conversion rate of other channels.
• Increased Purchase Intent: LinkedIn ads can increase purchase intent by 33 percent.

Optimize Your Profile and Company Page On LinkedIn

• Complete Your Profile: Fill out all sections, including your headline, summary, experience, education, and skills.
• Use a Professional Profile Picture: A clear headshot is essential.
• Write a Compelling Headline: Clearly state your role and what you do.
• Craft a Strong Summary: Highlight your expertise and value proposition.
• Optimize Your Company Page: Ensure your company page is complete, including logo, banner image, description, and contact information.
• Add a Call-to-Action (CTA): Encourage visitors to follow your page, sign up for your newsletter, or visit your website.

Create High-Quality Content

• Engaging Content: Content with images see twice the engagement.
• Live Video Power: Live streams see more engagement than regular videos.
• Weekly Posting: Weekly posts lead to 5.6x more follower growth.
• InMail Effectiveness: InMail has a 300 percent higher response rate than email.
• Share Valuable Content: Post articles, infographics, and videos that provide value to your audience.
• Use Visuals: Images and videos can increase engagement.
• Share Industry News: Stay updated on the latest trends and share relevant news.
• Post Regularly: Consistency is key. Aim to post at least a few times per week.
• Engage with Your Audience: Respond to comments and messages promptly.

Optimize Reach

• LinkedIn Groups: Join relevant groups to network with professionals in your industry.
• LinkedIn Ads: Target specific audiences with paid advertising.
• LinkedIn Analytics: Track your performance and identify areas for improvement.
• LinkedIn Live: Host live video streams to engage with your audience.
• Encourage your employees to share company content on their personal LinkedIn profiles to amplify your reach.
• Sales Navigator is a premium tool that helps you identify and connect with decision-makers, track their activity, and send personalized outreach messages.

Build Relationships

• Connect with Your Target Audience: Send personalized connection requests.
• Engage with Other Users: Like, comment, and share their content.
• Join LinkedIn Groups: Participate in discussions and share your insights.
• Build Relationships with Influencers: Collaborate with industry leaders.

Additional Tips:

• Use Relevant Hashtags: Increase your visibility and reach.
• Share Employee-Generated Content: Encourage your employees to share company news and insights.
• Run LinkedIn Polls: Generate engagement and gather valuable insights.
• Use LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform: Share longer-form content.

Measure Your Results

• Track Key Metrics: Monitor metrics like impressions, clicks, and engagement.
• Analyze Your Data: Use analytics to identify what’s working and what’s not.
• Adjust Your Strategy: Make data-driven decisions to optimize your efforts.

Common LinkedIn Mistakes

• Incomplete Profile: Not filling out all sections, especially the summary and experience.
• Lackluster Headline: A generic or vague headline that doesn’t highlight your skills or expertise.
• Poor Quality Profile Picture: A blurry, low-resolution, or unprofessional photo.
• Ignoring the About Section: Not using this space to showcase your unique value proposition.
• Overlooking the Skills Section: Failing to list relevant skills and endorse others.

Content Mistakes:

• Overposting: Flooding your feed with too many posts.
• Self-Promotion: Constantly sharing promotional content.
• Irrelevant Content: Posting content that doesn’t align with your professional brand.
• Neglecting Engagement: Not responding to comments and messages.
• Ignoring LinkedIn Groups: Missing out on valuable networking opportunities.

Networking Mistakes:

• Connecting with Strangers: Sending generic connection requests without a personalized message.
• Ignoring Your Network: Not staying connected with your contacts.
• Failing to Follow Up: Not nurturing relationships after initial connections.
• Not Endorsing Others: Being hesitant to endorse others’ skills.

General Mistakes:

• Not Using LinkedIn Regularly: Inconsistent activity can diminish your visibility.
• Ignoring Mobile Optimization: Not optimizing your profile for mobile viewing.
• Ignoring Privacy Settings: Not being mindful of your privacy and security settings.
• Not Using LinkedIn’s Advanced Search: Missing out on potential connections and opportunities.

“By avoiding these common mistakes and following best practices, you can maximize your LinkedIn presence” said Gary Chandler, CEO of Crossbow Communications. “The biggest mistake that B2B marketers can make is not making LinkedIn part of the marketing mix.”

Crossbow Communications is an award-winning public affairs and government affairs firm. We specialize in public health and environmental issues. We serve the world.

The post Best Practices For LinkedIn Marketing appeared first on Crossbow Communications.

Many businesses and nonprofit organizations rely on social media to help promote their brand, their candidate or their favorite cause. Although social media is an important part of brand management, it isn’t a silver bullet. It’s more like a double-edged sword that can work for you or against you.

Social media is another form of earned media. In order to earn attention for your posts, you must build your audience. You must play by the rules and you need to refine your best practices constantly. Some organizations are absolutely crushing it on social media platforms, while others are missing in action or shooting themselves in the foot. What sets these organizations apart?

Harnessing the power of social media requires strategic planning and opportunism

It requires a team effort that includes the executive leadership team, not just an uninformed rookie who manages social media platforms with random posts. The following best practices can help you refine a social media presence that builds your brand and your bottom line:

1. Conduct A Social Media Audit: Where are you today? What is working? Is there an account for the organization on the biggest and best platforms? Do key executives have accounts? Who is in charge of social media? Is there a communications plan in place? Is there a goal? Do you have a blog?Video?
2. Develop Social Media Accounts: Establish an account for your organization on the most influential social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube. Identify the key spokespeople for the organization and make sure that they have their professional accounts established and polished. Make sure that the profile information and graphics are uniform with the organization’s brand standards;
3. Train The Social Media Team: Be sure to assign a seasoned professional to coordinate all social media activity, including the primary organizational accounts. Make assignments to the rest of the team to support the online campaign through their personal/professional accounts. Explain how their interaction with the campaign can help build awareness, understanding and support. They can respond to posts, like them, and share posts in other ways. Encourage all stakeholders to support the campaign. Establish social media roles and guidelines for all employees. Develop strategies to get customers and influencers to make strategic posts;
4. Build Social Media Networks: The reach of your network determines the impact of any social media campaign. The message is part of the equation, but people who care must see your message. Be sure to follow key influencers and target them in certain posts. Be sure to follow allies, members, customers, volunteers, employees, suppliers, legislators, regulators and others as appropriate. Follow people who share your posts and be sure to follow those who follow you. As your network grows, so will your influence;
5. Research Competition/Opposition: Social media is a glass house. Your competitors will follow your posts. Keep track of your competitors on social media. Competitive research can help you be the leader on social media and in the market;
6. Integrate Social Media & Brand Management: Establish goals, key metrics and specific assignments for the social media team. Develop a media calendar of planned posts that is strategic and meaningful to stakeholders. Many organizations are struggling to find the right metrics to measure the impact of their social media campaigns. Many metrics are meaningless. Some outcomes are impossible to measure. Network growth, number of posts, number of shares and other intermediates metrics can help you gauge momentum, but the bottom line of the organization is typically the only metric that matters. Social media is a leadership tool, a positioning tool and a relationship-building tool. It also helps build SEO for your website if done properly. Don’t back away from social media just because you can’t measure the impact of every post.
7. Develop A Toolkit: Develop graphics, GIFs, MEMEs, white papers, blogs and photographs that help tell the story. These tools also can make your post viral, which means that it will reach even more people. Make sure that the executive team members all have professional headshots (casual or formal) for their profile pictures. Dark photos and full-body shots don’t work well on social media.
8. Post With Graphics & Hashtags: Be sure to put one or two strategic hash tags in your post. Since most social media platforms also serve as search engines, a hash tag can make sure that your post is more visible to people outside of your social media network when they are searching for a topic. You also can include a hashtag to bomb a conversation.
9. Monitor Social Media: Social media is meant to be a dialogue, but many organizations and leaders use it as a monologue of posts. I urge you to engage with people when possible and when appropriate. It helps build relationships, while demonstrating your humanity (versus a bot). Your responses are a chance to elaborate, investigate and advocate. In some cases, you must push back against misinformation. In other situations, you may need to ignore, block or mute responses from people who are set up as trolls. Don’t give a voice to those who are unreasonable. Be the voice of reason and remember that you won’t receive support from all of the people all of the time. Social media is a numbers game, so cut the losers loose as soon as possible and engage your supporters.

Corporations, nonprofits, government and advocates can all harness the power of social media. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes and don’t be afraid of being human.

Crossbow Communications is an award-winning public affairs and government affairs firm. We specialize in public health and environmental issues. We serve the world.

The post Optimize Influence On Social Media appeared first on Crossbow Communications.

Every social media channel is different. Each one has its own guidelines, different post types, and more that need to be navigated by your social media team. All of this information can be incredibly overwhelming.

• How Often to Post On Social Media?
• The Best Times to Post on Social Media
• Setting Up a Successful Social Media Posting Schedule
• Using Hashtags the Best Way
• Scheduling Social Media Content Curation for Massive Growth
• Be honest and transparent about your identity.
• Post accurate, concise, and useful information.
• Make sure your contribution will be of use to readers.
• Fact-check all information before you post. If you make an error, correct it quickly and visibly.
• Cite and link to sources whenever possible.
• If you have any question about the appropriateness of posting on certain topics, talk to your supervisor first.
• Keep your posts concise and easy to read.

As a company, there are some general guidelines worth following across all different social networks.

Best Social Media Channels For Business

Not every business needs to be on every social network. Rather, it’s best to focus on the platforms that provide the most opportunity for your business. If you’re unsure whether a network is a good fit for your business, start by reviewing each platform’s purpose and strengths. Then, answer a few more questions:

• What is our company trying to achieve on social media? Think broader business objectives (increase brand awareness, drive sales, establish authority, etc). Then, consider tactical aims like driving website traffic, conversions, and the like.
• Can a given network help achieve those goals? If traffic is a primary goal, something like Instagram might not be the best choice. Have a strong visual brand, though? Instagram is where it’s at. Weigh objectives against strengths on each platform.
• Would our audience reasonably expect us to be on a given platform? See if you have any competitors doing well on a given network. If they’re present, that’s a strong indicator you have a potential audience on that network.

If any networks don’t pass this test, consider dropping them and placing more resources behind platforms where there’s more opportunity.

Define Your Social Media Voice And Tone

Is your brand serious or funny? Professional or sarcastic? These are examples of traits that inform the voice of your brand on social media. And finding your voice is key to connecting with your audience. Why? Because people like brands they can relate to and that understand their needs. Defining your voice involves tackling three things:

1. What do you want your brand to sound like online?
2. Who is your target audience and what vocabulary do they use?
3. Based on the first two questions, what will your audience want to hear from you?

Don’t Sound Like A Corporate Drone

Nobody wants to follow a brand that sounds dull and robotic. Regardless how boring you think your niche might be, you are communicating with real people. So, use language your actual audience uses, and respond to users with language that sounds like it’s coming from a real person.

Handle Negativity With Grace and Sincerity

The best way to deal with negativity is with empathy. While it can be tough to take the high road sometimes, the more genuine you can be, the better.

Post at the Best Times

In order to maximize the number of eyes that see your content you need to post your messages at optimal times.

Find An Effective Posting Frequency

Finding the perfect posting frequency is almost like trying to balance a nickel on its side; it seems impossible but once you get it, it’s amazing. Now it may seem easier to post as much as you can but according to Sprout Social, posting too much accounts for 34.9% of all unfollows.

The reverse is also true. Sprout found that if brands were too quiet, they would cause about 17.9% of their audience to not follow them.

Focus On Quality Over Quantity

Some social networks require a high volume of content to make them worthwhile. Twitter is one that immediately comes to mind. Pinterest may be up there, too. But, always emphasize quality over quantity. Avoid posting anything simply for the sake of it, and make sure every post is connected to a broader goal or objective.

Mix Up Your Content

No one likes to see social media posts that are all about products 100% of the time.

According to Hubspot, 45% of people will unfollow brands because they post too many promotional items.

Since they already took the time to follow you on social media there is a good chance they are already interested in you as a company. Publishing promotional posts non-stop will turn people off to your brand because it seems like you care more about your products then you do about conversing with them.

In order to avoid those promotional posting schedules try mixing it up with different message topics try mixing it up with:

• Job postings
• Company culture posts
• Community news (if it’s relevant to your brand)
• Industry news
• GIFs
• Branded content
• Informative blog posts

Don’t Use Slang Unless It’s Relevant To Your Brand

Do you remember that moment when your dad or mom tried to be cool and use the “hip lingo” that all the kids were using? Or, maybe you’re that parent right now. In either case, it’s always embarrassing for everyone involved.

When brands use slang (if it’s outside of character) it has the same effect. Sprout reports that 38.4% of people will unfollow brands if they use slang or jargon.

The best way that you can interact with your customer base is to use the same language that they use.

To find out how they’re discussing you and your brand start to monitor and respond in the same language that your followers are using. You’ll begin to see trends emerge as you continue to watch and listen.

Research Your Competitors

Taking the time to research your competitors could help inspire your own content. Why? Because your competitors are fighting for the same audience that you are. If their content is drawing over your fans it might be time to revamp your social tactics.

Draw from the best and make it your own after all.

How can you accurately track your competitors?

Start out by making a list of your top five social media competitors. From there, pick your top five channels and note which competitors are on each of your top five channels.

This next part might seem incredibly time-consuming but trust us, it’s worth it. Look at their past six months of content and observe the following:

• What types of content are they sharing?
• On average how much engagement do they seem to get for each message they post.
• How does their voice and tone compare to your own?

Use A Social Media Calendar

Keeping a busy social media schedule organized is nearly impossible without a calendar.

Create A Social Media/PR Disaster Plan

Social media while a great tool is a very powerful one. One misstep can send your company spiraling into a social nightmare and creating a plan while cooler heads are available will save you from the last second “what do we do” panic. Unfortunately, social disasters are more common than you might think.

To create a disaster guide, lay out the following information to start:

Who needs to be notified in the event of a social media crisis?

• Board
• Staff
• PR
• Social
• Management
• Customer Service

Claim Your Usernames On Channels, Even If You’re Not Active

This may seem counterproductive, but taking the time to claim usernames on channels even if you’re not active on them. Why? Because if you ever do move on to the channel, you know your username is already accessible. You can also use the empty profile page to direct your potential fans to your other social sites or your website.

Research Your Hashtags Before You Use Them

Anyone remember the time that DiGiornos accidentally sent a tweet about pizza with a hashtag that domestic violence survivors were using to explain why they stayed in their relationships? You can imagine how well that went over. But it is a perfect example of why you need to triple-check what a hashtag means before you use in your social media messages. To find hashtags to use for your social channels, open your company’s Twitter profile and scroll down to your Trending Hashtag section. You can change where your trending hashtags are being gathered from as different areas around the world will have different trending hashtags.

Use Humor Sparingly

Humor on social media can be both a blessing and a curse. One misstep and your joke can spin you into a social media disaster war zone. However hit the right notes for humor and your brand can take off.

Limit Employee Access To Company Social Media Accounts

Social media is in and of itself a social endeavor. That means you want your employees to be involved in the conversation as well. However, that doesn’t mean that everyone should have access to your company social media accounts. Look at what happened to HMV when they fired a bunch of people at one time including their social team. Team members went rogue, tweeting about how they were all getting fired at once. The worst part? The people that were staying had no idea how to shut it down.

You need to have control over who has that kind of power so save yourself the headache and create a list of who should have access to that account. Who should have access to your social channels? Here’s a possible list to get you started:

• CMO
• Marketing manager
• Writers and social media specialists
• Graphic designers
• PR

Optimize Your Social Profiles For Maximum Exposure

If your social profiles aren’t filled out the maximum with the same information about your company you’re missing out on an opportunity to connect with your customer base. Go through your current social profile and make sure the following are consistent:

• Username
• Profile and header photos
• Bios
• Company descriptions
• Links

Ignore Trolls

If you’ve ever experienced that one person that just seems out to get you as a brand, you’ve probably dealt with trolling. The best thing to do with trolls is to ignore them. However, it is important to note that actual customer complaints and trolls are sometimes difficult to tell apart. Your actual customers with a complaint will have real reasoning behind it. They’ll have a problem that you can solve.

Be Respectful

• Keep your discourse civil. Avoid making offensive and/or inflammatory remarks.
• If you think someone else’s post or comment requires a reply (not all of them do), be sure you are the appropriate person to respond before you post.
• Don’t go off-topic.
• Write in the first person.
• Whenever possible and appropriate, share a link to an official source to clarify an issue and offer to help in the future.
• Always give people proper credit for their work. Before you post anything that’s not your own, make sure you have the right to do so. Better yet, link to the work instead.

Maintain Confidentiality

• Do not post confidential or proprietary information.
• If you discuss a situation that involves individuals, post nothing that could identify those individuals.
• Keep a close eye on activity. More than one person may need to be assigned to this task.
• Post and update content at least once a week, if possible.
• Respond to any questions in a timely fashion.

Social media is only as strong as your network and your content. It pays to nurture both.

Crossbow Communications is an award-winning public affairs and government affairs firm. We specialize in public health and environmental issues. We serve the world.

The post Best Practices On Social Media appeared first on Crossbow Communications.